This is where the purity of one's magical energy came into play.
For one, people with high purity in their magical energy would find it much easier to break through such barriers, typically only requiring some time and effort in order to succeed.
Amongst such people, using a cultivation treasure to help overcome a cultivation barrier was a luxury, not a necessity.
On top of that, came the added benefit of sometimes not even encountering a cultivation barrier.
"Wooden Bucket" foundation cultivators were faced with at least 2 minor and 1 major cultivation barrier when cultivating from one stage to another. Namely, the 2 division barriers, from early to middle and then from middle to late, and then the cultivation barrier that everyone had to break through, the one that separated cultivators from one cultivation stage to the next.
These three cultivation barriers were not the limit to what someone with such a foundation would have to deal with, but only the minimum amount.
If one's magical energy was not pure enough, it was not rare to encounter a minor cultivation barrier even when trying to break through from Qi Refining level 1 to level 2.
For "Steel Bucket" foundation cultivators however, since their magical energy purity was so high, it was completely different.
The only cultivation barrier that a cultivator with a very pure magical energy was guaranteed to deal with, was the major cultivation barrier that separated the Qi Refining Stage from the Foundation Building Stage.
Minor cultivation barriers between ordinary levels was unheard of, and the ones separating divisions, were either far weaker than those of their "wooden" counterparts, or sometimes even just outright non-existent.
The benefits that magical energy purity provided to a cultivator's cultivation alone made it more than worth the trouble.
When it came to combat however, the effect of purity of one's magical energy was just as pronounced.
There were no records to prove this, but according to the ancient texts, every 10% difference in purity between cultivators was equal to the difference in 1 cultivation level.
For example, a cultivator with 90% purity at the 1st level of Qi Refining, had a magical energy that was equal in strength to that of someone with 80% purity at the 2nd level of Qi Refining.
Gaston made a mental note to himself here, that this was only true for the strength of the magical energy, but not the amount of it that one possessed.
This was a lesson he learned the hard way, as despite having far purer magical energy than the Blue Apes he had to face, due to the limited amount of it he possessed, he could only wipe the floor with 3 Blue Apes before he was nearly out of energy.
Despite the fact that in theory, he should've been equal to a Blue Ape at the 4th level of Qi Refining, in practice, he was barely considered elite even within his own level.
Of course, this couldn't solely be blamed on the problem of energy reserves.
After all, Gaston and his crew had absolutely no experience when in came to fighting as real cultivators, nor did they know how to properly use their energy.
Limited to using only a singular magic technique in what was no doubt the most primitive way to use it, they were like, for lack of a better term, Apes armed with machine guns.
The fact that they could only deal with so few enemies at a time was due to their own inability, not because of the machine gun.
Additionally, when it came to the purity of magical energy, there were also differences between the required amount of purity difference when crossing levels.
A 10% difference in purity might equate to equal magical energy strength between the 1st and 2nd level of Qi Refining, but it certainly did not work the same way across divisions.
For example, someone with 90% purity at the 1st level of the Qi Refining stage would not have as strong of magical energy as someone with 60% purity at the 4th level of Qi Refining.
This is due to the fact that when crossing from the 3rd level of cultivation to the 4th, one doesn't just cross a level, but also enters a new division, going from the early division to the middle division.
Aside from the change in title, it also comes with double the usual increase in both the quality of one's magical energy, and the quantity.
Therefore, this also results in the doubling of the normal amount of purity difference in order to have the matching strength in magical energy, from 10% to 20%.
This is one of the reasons behind the strict hierarchy between cultivators.
Despite this however, the purity of one's own magical energy was still extremely important.
When using magical techniques, the amount of energy required to active one varied from cultivator to cultivator, in part due to their differences in comprehension on said technique, but in far larger proportion due to the differences in magical energy purity.
Provided two cultivators had the same understanding of a magical technique, it was not unheard of for the cultivator with even 10% higher magical energy purity to activate the same technique 50% times more than his counter part.
If one cultivator could use a technique 10 times, with average power, and another could use it 15 times, with a difference of one level when it comes to power, then naturally these two cultivators were not the same, despite what their cultivation level might tell you.
Thought it was important not to get arrogant in spite of these obvious advantages.
One might have weaker magical energy, and a lesser amount of it too, but in a real fight, anything could happen.
Just one mistake, where you misread your opponent's powerful attack for a regular one, resulting in you not dodging or investing enough in blocking, could result in the stronger party getting killed.
Ruben was a prime example of this.
Despite possessing far more powerful magical energy than the Blue Apes, due to his inherent pursuit of efficiency when attacking that had been hammered into him since he was a child, he often found himself using less energy than was required and that led to him getting himself into trouble.
Even after months of combat in this forest, in the last memory that Gaston had recovered, Ruben had made the same mistake again, almost dying to a far inferior opponent.
Despite the lack of familiarity between Gaston and the other four members of his crew, they had managed to survive getting hunted down for such a long time by beings at the same cultivation level as themselves.
At first, Gaston wasn't sure what the reason for this was, but after learning about the specifics of cultivation, he got his answer.